Steroids used in this case were in the *catabolic* class (no pun here)
instead of anabolic as the type used to build the body.  Catabolic steroids
can cause lots of prollems, and one of them is diabetes.  The other, of
course, results in a lesser ability of the animal to rebuilt its body.  Slow
growing hair may be one of them.

I have a cat with a debilitating mouth disease that is only best treated
with twice monthly catabolic steroid injections.  These cause him to have
diabetes, which we treat twice daily with type N human insulin.  (He gets
four units with is 4/100 of a cc.  Not much, but enough for a 13 pound cat.)

We had to shave each shoulder, right and left, to alternate his daily
injection; and the hair is very slow to grow back there.

In some cases, when the steroids are discontinued, the diabetes slowly
disappears; but now always.  500 is very high for a cat.  I try to keep my
guy's glucose at 200 or thereabouts.  And you might have to submit him to
weekly glucose testing strips until you get the feel for how much insulin to
give him regularly.

I watch my guy's drinking and urinating.  When he starts going to the faucet
to get the drips, I know his glucose is going higher, and I compensate by
adding another unit at least one time a day.  It is a learning process, and
I've pretty well mastered it after five years.

Catabolic steroids take a toll on the cat's appearance.  You mentioned that
he was given the steroid in pill form.  Pills have a less pronounced bell
curve than do injections, and many times, the oral application lasts longer
in the cat's system than do injections.  But even after all traces of
steroids have vanished, the renal glands may not be willing to resume their
physiological job. --meaning that insulin might be needed, even in small
doses.

I would not be quick to start the insulin unless his glucose continues to
bump above 350 or so.  And if you start, start very, very gradually with
extremely small doses.

This is prolly much more than you wanted to know.

--Geno

Our cat also got steroid-induced diabetes, I was so upset when I
realized it could have been avoided.

A very good place to get info is the message board at
www.felinediabetes.com. They will suggest home-testing the blood glucose
level. They are extremely helpful and have many knowledgeable people
checking in every day.

We started out at 1 unit of Humulin U once a day. Initial blood sugar
was over 400 and Bob was about 12 lbs. That worked well for 6 mos, then
we had to go to twice a day, trying different doses.

Good luck with your kitty.

Rhonda

I would suggest finding another vet.

I am a human, not a cat, but I have some experience that may shed
light on this.

I have been diabetic since childhood. Normally I am well controlled
and have no problems.

About ten years ago I decided to get my eyes cut to cure myopia. The
surgeon did a terrific job -- 20-20 now. Immediately following the
surgery the surgeon prescribed drops that I was to put in my eyes. The
purpose was to retard healing so the eyes wouldn't scar. The drops
were a steroid.

The morning following the day of the surgery I discovered to my horror
that my BG was 450 mg/dL. I repeated the test and got the same answer.
I suspected that something had gone haywire with my meter, so I went
out to my car and got my other meter. Same results.

Then I called my doc and yelled for help. Doc was not in, so I wrote
down everything that had happened to me in the past month and faxed it
to him. Naturally, I included the eye surgery and the eye drops. He
called back half an hour later and said "no problem -- steroids always
do that." He recommended just increasing my insulin as necessary to
compensate as long as I was on the steroids. I did and after I went
off the steroids things went back to the way they were before.

The reason steroids don't do this to non-diabetics is that normal
people have 2-3 times the insulin-producing capacity they need. When
they go on steroids their pancreas just produces more to compensate.

Not if the diabetes was caused by the steroids. Once the cat is off
the steroids the insulin hormone levels will return to normal. Of
course, it is likely that your cat's pancreas is just barely able to
manage under normal conditions. Perhaps later in life it will become
necessary to go on insulin. But probably not at this point, once the
cat is off the steroids.

--
Bogus e-mail address, but I read this newsgroup regularly, so reply here.